If you’ve ever written a blurb, or description, of a
product or service for your organization’s catalogs, brochures, websites, etc.,
then you know it can be challenging.
Whether you’ve written a handful or hundreds, you can increase the odds
of getting your desired outcome--a sale, subscription, membership, or
donation--if you keep the following four tips in mind.
1. Know the material, product, or
service. This may sound silly, but you
can’t sell what you don’t understand. It’s
not your job to read every book you publish, run every machine your company
owns, or visit every client or benefactor of your services. But it is your job to become a sort of expert
in all of the things your organization does.
How do you do that? If you don’t
have firsthand knowledge or experience with the products or services, talk to
someone who does. Talk to the designers,
creators, installers, etc. Have a good
understanding of what the product or service does, who needs it, how it works,
and what benefits it creates. Don’t
forget to address or include any emotional response or benefit.
2. Know your audience. Are you writing for someone who has never
heard of your organization before or a loyal customer? Do your readers prefer technical language or
less formal, more colloquial terms? What
motives them? What needs do they
have? The more you know, the better you
can tailor your text.
3. Include all the important details. Don’t assume everyone knows everything about
what you’re promoting. If a piece of information--dimensions,
frequency, times, etc.--could help determine the suitability of a particular
product or service for a customer, include it.
4. Include all the benefits. Features are important and should be included
in your description, but remember that your product or service was created for
a reason. It serves a function, and that
function is to help someone. Highlight
all the ways your product or service saves users time, money, effort, etc.
Once you have your blurbs written, remember that they’re
not ever completely done. Review them
occasionally and update them whenever you have new information to incorporate:
new endorsements, new credentials for the creators, new ways of explaining
typical benefits, etc.
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